Archetype – Silent A Cappella Review

Silent A Cappella is the debut album from instrumental three-piece Archetype and it follows on nicely from their impressive EP The Descendent.

Featuring eleven great tracks, it’s a good album to stick on for a bit of background music, whilst also serving as a more engaging listen as well, and that’s the beauty of instrumental music – it’s versatile enough to be enjoyed in several different ways, and this is something that Archetype have definitely taken advantage of here.

Although the track titles do leave a little to be desired, as they make you take the music a little less seriously, at the end of the day this isn’t something that is a massive problem as at the end of the day, this is an instrumental piece and the titles don’t feature in the tracks themselves.

Musically there’s a lot of good stuff about Silent A Cappella, with the atmospheric intro track …And So It Begins cascading beautifully into following track Paradigm, which is a gloriously technical little number with plenty of complex little moments to grab your attention, and what’s great is that you seem to notice a new little detail on every listen! Additionally, later track Loud Noises, Please…Fanks is a great wall of sound that is seemingly made to be listened to at top volume!

All in all, a pretty good listen. A little more variety between some of the songs could go a long way, but as a whole this is a great piece of work that Archetype should definitely be proud of.

Soundscape's editor, who is particularly fond of doom, black metal and folk (but will give anything a chance). Likes to travel to see bands abroad when she can. Contact: nathumphries@soundscapemagazine.com or @acidnat on twitter.